Amber Ashes
by Mirialdo
Summary: Prequel to Tsuki no Yami, Wataricenteric focusing on Watari's death and the after effects, involving Tatsumi undergoing revision
1. Inferno

**_ Amber Ashes  
_**   
**Disclaimer:** Don't own anything but the plot and Maykai  
  
**Warnings:** AU, Angst, Death, Implied Yaoi  
  
**Pairings:** Primary- Watari x Tatsumi, Secondary- Muraki x Tsuzuki, Hisoka + Maykai   
  
  
**_I: Inferno  
_**   
Watari glanced up from the machine he was hunched over at the sound of a couple of hoots behind him. Looking back over his shoulder he smiled softly at the small barn owl that was perched on the chair sitting at his desk. "We'll go home soon Zerothrii, I'm almost done. I know what to do to make it work finally." he said as he turned back to fix a few more small circuits in place on one of the panels. His remark was followed by a couple more hoots and he shook his head, causing his blonde bangs to fall into his face. "I tell you I am close to the breakthrough, I've figured what has been going wrong and soon it *will* work the way its suppose to, of course I know it will be no doubt several years before it gets any real use.. but just think of how much it could help Japan, and the other countries around the world."   
  
Zerothrii ruffled his feathers and gave him another derisive hoot. Watari turned away from the machine to look down at the fluffed up owl. "Now who asked you hmm? Personally, making fuel out of harvested rice sounds like a perfectly logical thing to begin with, and I tell you this machine will do it and replace oil and those other messy types of fuel." He smirked down at the owl and then turned to continue his work.  
  
A knock on his door interrupted him and he sighed in annoyance as he set down his tools and walked towards the door, opening it and looking down at the men outside. Watari's eyes played over their looks and clothing, filing away the knowledge and then giving him 'who' these people were. Amber eyes widened slightly as the leader began to open his mouth to speak and he slammed the door in their face, running back towards the desk, and picking up the blueprints on it, rolling them up to place inside their special storage tubes.   
  
As long as he had them, it wouldn't matter if he lost the machine sitting on his work bench. He could start again, if need be. Watari was just beginning to stuff the rolled up prints into the tubes when the door slammed inwards hitting the wall with a sound like a gunshot.   
  
He was roughly jerked back away from the table, the blueprints and the tubes taken from his hands as two of the thugs with the leader took a hold of his arms. Two others began to ransack the studio around him. Watari stared at the man in front of him, or more accurately at the prints in his hands. "Why are you doing this?" he asked.  
  
"Because you're threatening our boss, he doesn't like threats, so we take care of them for him." The man said as he threw the prints and their cases onto the table, turning around to look at the machine. Kicking the edge of the table, the henchman caused it to fall over onto its side, sending the machine sitting on it crashing to the floor to shatter into pieces. Turning back around, the stranger smirked at Watari and then drew a gun from his coat. "Now, we're going to leave nice and quiet. If you make any trouble, I'll put a bullet between those weird-ass golden eyes of yours. Do we have an understanding?" he asked as he raised the barrel of the pistol to point at Watari's forehead.   
  
Unfortunately, all five thugs had not counted on the small ball of furious feathers to make an appearance just then. Zerothrii dived at the two thugs holding Watari and scratched one across the face with his talons, screaming. The bloodied man screeched as he released Watari, to cover his bloodied face. Watari slipped free from the other man who was ducking the furious dives of the small owl and made a dash towards the desk to grab the prints. Turning, he ran for the doorway only to freeze as he heard the gunshot behind him.   
  
Slowly, Watari turned his head to look at what had happened. Halfway between him and the gunman laid a small bundle of feathers, a small thin trail of red turning the outer most white feathers pink. Watari's eyes widened as he absently stepped towards it and then he fell to his knees in front of it, hands going down, dropping the prints, to pick up the small owl. "No.." he whispered softly, amber eyes tearing up as he held the lifeless body in his hands and slowly looked up to see the gunman glaring at him, blood trailing down his face from a gash along his forehead.   
  
"The little bastard shouldn't of attacked us. Now what shall we do with you? After all, now we have to make an example out of you, show everyone what happens when you mess with the boss and us. What do you think boys?" The lead thug asked as he walked towards Watari.   
  
Watari held the small limp form against him as he jerked back away from the man, pulling himself up to his feet to back towards the door. Two of the other thugs intercepted him and held his shoulders tightly as the leader of the thugs leaned down to pick the blueprints up off the floor. "I think I have an idea.." The leader said as he took out a lighter and held the flame over the edge of the paper the prints were done on. It took a moment for it to catch, but as it did, the man looked back at Watari smirking. "I've always loved playing with fire. Do you know how fast hair catches and goes up in flame?" he asked with a mad glint in his eyes.   
  
Watari's eyes widened as he walked closer towards him. Without warning he was shoved towards the man from behind. As he staggered forwards, one of the men behind him knocked his legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor, causing his head to strike the floor hard enough to knock his glasses from his face and daze him. As he tried to recover, he heard laughter and then smelled kerosene close by.   
  
A small scratch barely registered as a match before the studio was suddenly engulfed in flames. As the first of the fires touched him, Watari whimpered softly staring at the blurry reddish gold flames. Pulling back from them, he once more found the small body of his friend. As Watari looked away from Zerothrii, he saw the whole room was ablaze, the flames closing the already small circle around him. The roof above groaned loudly as it weakened from the fire licking at its supports. A scream was torn from his throat as his hair and clothes caught afire, but mercifully everything soon went black after the pain became unbearable.  
  
  
  
Back to Yami no Matsuei  
  
Forward to II: Mission  
  
Back to Fiction  



	2. Mission

**_ II: Mission  
_**  
  
Tatsumi glanced through the file in his hand once more before looking up at his superior. "I take it you wish me to go investigate this?" he asked as he closed the folder.   
  
"Hai. The body has died, but the soul remains trapped within it."  
  
"Understood, I shall get started on it as soon as I find my partner." Tatsumi said as he turned to leave the room. Walking down the hallway he flipped through the file again, it didn't contain much which was slightly surprising. No record of how the man had died, no record of what the person had been doing at the time of death, only a name, a face, and a place. He turned slightly to open the door to the office with one shoulder.   
  
Glancing around once silently to scan the people inside the room and not seeing Tsuzuki, he sat down at his desk to wait for a moment, looking at the photo in the file. It was a poor quality black and white head shot of the man. Tatsumi glanced down once more at the papers in the file again, tapping the edge of the photo against the desk.   
  
'Watari Yutaka. Memorial Heights Hospital.' Not much to go on, he thought silently as he leaned back in his chair. Well, there was nothing to be done about it, except get the job done and the sooner it was over the sooner it would be off his mind. Which meant he needed to find Tsuzuki. Tatsumi sighed and then tucked papers and photo back into the folder and stood back up.   
  
Walking out of the office, he looked down the hallway in both directions before taking the one that led to the room with the closest food in it. Tatsumi was half way there when he was found by Maykai, the young shinigami gave him a hesitant smile before speaking. "Tatsumi-san, I have a message from EnmaDaiOh-sama to you."   
  
Tatsumi raised an eyebrow slightly. "I see. What is it then?" he asked watching the young man. Maykai held out a piece of white paper and after Tatsumi had taken it, turned and fled down the hall without another word. Shaking his head, he looked down at the white paper and opened it silently. He read the two words written there and blinked twice before reading them again.   
  
They still said the same thing, _'Go Alone'_. But no one went out on a case alone, it was against the rules. But they were apparently his orders and one had to follow orders, despite that they were in violation of the rules. He was not one to question his superiors on their orders, after all they knew better than he about what needed to be done, and if he had to go by himself on this case then so be it. Turning back around Tatsumi began to walk out of the office building.  
  
  
  
Back to Yami no Matsuei  
  
Forward to III: Fury  
  
Back to Fiction  



	3. Fury

**_ III: Fury  
_**  
  
In Memorial Hospital a lone figure walked silently down one of the many off white halls. Walking past the nurse's desk, no one even looked up at him. He passed several patients who sat in the hallway, some of them turning their faces away as the man passed them, so as not to actually see him as he went by. One of them looked directly at the brown-clad figure and reached out towards him.   
  
The dying man's eyes pleading as the pale hand stretched out to try and touch the man as he passed. "Take me away from here, please." came the harsh whisper from the man lying in the bed. A deep blue eye flickered once towards the voice and then away, as Tatsumi easily avoided the grasping fingers and continued down the hallway towards the room that held his case.   
  
Entering the room, he scanned it silently as he walked towards the bed that held a form covered in bandages. Standing beside the bed, Tatsumi glanced down at the wires that slipped out from under the wrappings and traced their path to the life support system they were hooked up to. He was about to cause the machine to fail for the time needed when a voice caught his attention.   
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Tatsumi looked down into amber eyes that were filled with furious rage. He raised a dark brown eyebrow. "I am here to release you from this place." he stated simply watching Watari. The eyes closed for a moment before opening, the rage dimmed faintly to be replaced by a firm determination.   
  
"Good, I have business to finish with a couple people."   
  
"Oh?"   
  
"Hai, the bastards who did this to me and killed my friend. I won't allow them to get away with it."  
  
"I see, well you'll have to take that up with EnmaDaiOh-sama. I'm just here to release you from this place." Tatsumi said as he walked around the bed, to rest one hand on top of the life support machinery. He glanced once more at the eyes as they followed him, and hesitated as he stared into the amber depths. Shaking himself out of the daze Tatsumi summoned a single shadow to slice the machine's power cord in two. Soon afterwards alarms screeched as the machine's power failed.   
  
Looking over at Watari once more before turning to leave, he noted the eyes had not closed and were still silently intent on him. Tatsumi slipped out of the room as the heart monitor suddenly flat lined and began raising another alarm. Sliding past the nurses hurrying towards the room he had just left, he continued down the hallway ignoring everyone else in his path until he was out of the hospital and walking down the street towards a nearby ally.  
  
  
  
Back to Yami no Matsuei  
  
Forward to IV: Change  
  
Back to Fiction  



	4. Change

**_ IV: Change  
_**   
  
"What would your judgment be on the soul you just freed, Tatsumi-san?" EnmaDaiOh asked Tatsumi as he watched the tall shinigami pace in front of him.   
  
Tatsumi glanced up, sapphire eyes flickering over at EnmaDaiOh as he stopped his pacing to consider the question. "There was a fire in his eyes, like a grim determination that he would get revenge on his killers, no matter how hard it might be. The fact he even survived the third degree burns under those bandages long enough for them to get him on life support attests to his willpower to continue living, or remain on earth." he said. "I have no doubt he could easily become a shinigami and be good at it."   
  
"Hai, you are right on the last account at the very least."   
  
Tatsumi blinked and looked at his superior in faint confusion, before speaking. "What do you mean by that, may I ask?"   
  
"The soul, Watari-san followed you here. He's already become a shinigami while we've been speaking and I've asked him to join us." A light knock followed EnmaDaiOh's words and Tatsumi turned to face the door as it opened to admit a man dressed in jeans and a white smock that hung loosely over a blue shirt with a black turtleneck underneath it. The blonde turned to walk towards them, his hair pulled up in a loose pony tail at his neck.   
  
"Tatsumi-san, Watari Yutaka. He's been given the Kyoto region seeing as he's from that area. Watari-san, Tatsumi Seiichiro, Tokyo region."   
  
Watari smiled and nodded at Tatsumi, as he came to stand in front of both Tatsumi and EnmaDaiOh. "Pleased to meet you, Tatsumi-san." he said, looking into Tatsumi's eyes.   
  
Tatsumi stared at the other man in silent shock. This **wasn't** the man he had spoken to in the hospital. There was no trace of recognition in the amber eyes, and they held none of the furious determination they had held earlier. Something was definitely wrong here. Tatsumi finally shook himself out of his shock and murmured a quiet. "Excuse me, Watari-san, EnmaDaiOh-sama."   
  
Quickly after he spoke, Tatsumi lowered his eyes and turned away to walk towards the doorway and exit the room. EnmaDaiOh watched Tatsumi's exit silently, as Watari blinked in confusion at the cold reception.   
  
  
  
Back to Yami no Matsuei  
  
Forward to V: Obsession  
  
Back to Fiction  



	5. Obsession

**_ V: Obsession   
_**  
  
A couple of months later, Tatsumi was sitting inside the library searching through the records when Maykai found him again. Glancing briefly up at the younger shinigami, Tatsumi saw the piece of paper in the hand held towards him. He put the file he was holding down and raised an eyebrow in query.   
  
Maykai fidgeted slightly under his gaze and finally set the paper down on the table. "The chief wants to speak with you, that's the time when he wants you to come to his office." the young man said as he began to edge back towards the doors of the library.   
  
Glancing down at the paper, Tatsumi picked it up and unfolded it reading the short message within. "I will be there." he said as he refolded the paper and placed it in his jacket pocket. Maykai nodded and then fled out the doors, causing Tatsumi to shake his head at the fear the other shinigami had of him. At times the reactions his reputation received were rather annoying, but the pros outweighed the cons most of the time.   
  
Picking the file back up, he began to go through it again more slowly, eyes scanning the pages for anything he might of missed the first time. No such luck, despite researching for over a month, he had yet to find anything on their new doctor and scientist, Watari Yutaka, other than what he had seen when he had first taken the case and completed it. There had to be a reason for the drastic change in nature, people did not readily forget such things as revenge.   
  
Tatsumi had tried talking to Watari about it, but it seemed the blonde had no memory of his death or even of the period before he died. All Watari knew was where he was born and raised, after that it became a undefined blur that no matter how hard he or Tatsumi tried to focus in on it, it always escaped them.  
  
Sighing, Tatsumi set the file down and then glanced up at the clock. It was almost time to meet with the chief in his office. Leaving the library, Tatsumi began to walk down the hallway silently, his mind once more going over everything he'd tried so far and the options he had left. Currently he was on the inactive list so the lack of cases gave him time to think and research, but the mystery was beginning to get on what few nerves he had left. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get anywhere near solving it.  
  
Tatsumi pushed open the office door and then walked over towards Konoe's office, knocking lightly on the door before opening it. Konoe looked up towards Tatsumi from behind the numerous stacks of files and papers that cluttered his desk. "Thank you for coming, I have some news you might be interested in." he said pushing his seat back from the desk. As Konoe stood up, his jacket brushed against a stack of precariously balanced papers causing them to fall and scatter over the floor around his desk. "And I swear, it comes none to late. That is the third time those damned bills have fallen off my desk." Konoe growled as he bent down to begin picking the papers back up.  
  
Tatsumi raised an eyebrow before lightly clearing his throat to regain the chief's attention. "What is it?" he asked watching as Konoe chased after one bill that had come to rest underneath the desk.   
  
The chief raised up as he captured the errant paper and smacked the back of his head against the desk. Swearing quietly, he put the bills he had captured so far back on the desk where they promptly fell back off into the floor to join the others still there.   
  
Turning towards Tatsumi, he sighed. "You're being promoted. How does being my secretary sound? It would be your job to take care of these blasted bills and the budget. Maybe with these bills out of my hair, I can finally get some work done around here."   
  
A dark brown eyebrow raised sharply again. "I would be in charge of the finances?" Tatsumi asked, eyes suddenly intent on Konoe, who shifted his position slightly feeling suddenly like a mouse under a snake's gaze.   
  
"Hai, I know if I can trust anyone with them its you."   
  
"I accept."   
  
Konoe smiled then, as he picked up a couple files and placed them under one arm. Walking forwards through the sea of papers on the floor, he nodded to Tatsumi as he reached the door beside him. "Great, this will be your office from now on then. I'll check in on how your doing later." he said as he opened the door and left quickly shutting it again.   
  
Tatsumi glanced back at the desk and the papers surrounding it. Slowly, unseen to anyone a small sadistic smirk began to grace his lips. This was going to be **fun**, of course it would also be work trying to make sense of the mess. But afterwards, he would definitely enjoy this.   
  
Walking towards the desk, Tatsumi bent down and began to pick the papers up stacking them beside the desk. After he finished, he sat down and picked up the pen that laid there on top of a couple bills. His eyes quickly scanned them and he began sorting through the massive piles on either side of him into **'needed'** and **'expendable'**.  
  
After an hour he glanced up from his work to raise an eyebrow briefly at how large the second stack was becoming. "No wonder the budget's in crisis." he said as he once more began sort through the remaining papers.   
  
When Konoe opened the door to peek inside, Tatsumi was still hard at work, but Konoe could actually see the desk now. He quietly pulled his head out of the door and shut it without disturbing Tatsumi. With a faint smirk on his lips, Konoe went back to his new office and sat down. Two problems solved with one stone. Now Tatsumi wouldn't be haunting the library or halls anymore on his crusade to find out more about the new doctor they had, and also Tatsumi would surely fix the crisis that was currently their budget.   
  
  
  
(Continued in **Tsuki no Yami** -set two years after Yami no Matsuei-)  
  
  
Back to Yami no Matsuei  
  
Forward to Tsuki no Yami   
  
Back to Fiction  



End file.
